Hanover 18U softball closes successful season

He watched his young team grow during the season in the South Shore Summer Softball League.

By Mark Ducharme

Hanover 18U softball coach Ed Alicea is looking forward to next year.

He watched his young team grow during the season in the South Shore Summer Softball League.

Hanover improved as the season went on and earned a spot in the league playoffs.

“We had a good group,” said Alicea. “They played together and they played hard throughout the season. They showed up early on Saturday mornings for practice and worked hard. I can not wait for next year. We will have about 90 percent of the team coming back next year.”

Hanover hoped that the old saying that the third time would be the charm would come through for them. They earend a game against Bridgewater in the South Shore Summer League playoffs.

They had lost both of its games to Bridgewater in league play during the regular season including a late season 12-2 loss at home.

A bad inning for Hanover was the difference as Bridgewater produced five runs in the fifth inning and held on for a 9-6 win.

“I felt that we played a great game against Bridgewater,” Alicea said. “We came back and took a 2-1 lead against them. We had one bad inning. We had a chance for a big sixth inning. We loaded the bases with two outs and Kelsey Riordan hit a bullet, but their outfielder made a highlight catch in right centerfield. That was the huge play in the game.”

According to the coach, Stephanie Spitz had a strong game at shortstop. Hanover first baseman Ashley Delaney laid down some key sacrifice bunts in the game.

“Stephanie has been a good team leader for us,” said Alicea.

The starting pitcher Julianne Alicea and catcher Annika Rowland both work well together in the game.

“It was great to get to the playoffs in the Elite Division,” said Alicea. “We expected to play well, but we did not know if we would make the playoffs with a young team. We lost to some of the best teams in the league by one and two runs when we played them. I thought that we did better than I expected.”

Alicea acknowledge the hard work of his assistants John O’Connor , Joe Gelly and Pete Tofuri as well as Alex Alicea who worked with the pitchers and catchers.